Young Australians Staying Home: A Growing Trend

Australians believe that by the age of 26, young adults should have moved out of their parents’ homes. However, a recent report shows that more young adults are actually living with their parents. Here is an overview of the changes that have occurred over the past twenty years.

While living at home beyond one’s mid-20s was once considered taboo in Australia, an increasing number of people are now choosing to do so compared to twenty years ago.

Why are Young Australians Staying Home?

 The  Since 2001, a research study has been monitoring 17,000 individuals in over 9,000 households. The results from the 2021 survey, conducted during a period of widespread lockdown in Australia, have just been released.

A section of the study investigates the number of individuals between the ages of 18 and 29 who continue to reside with their parents. The percentage is now greater than it was two decades ago, but there was a notable increase around 2010 for men and 2015 for women. Since then, this trend has remained fairly consistent.

A recent survey conducted by the financial comparison website Canstar in December revealed that 50% of over 2,000 adult participants felt that Australians should not continue to reside with their parents.  .

The Challenges of Living with Parents

In 2021, HILDA discovered that 31.2% of men aged 26 to 29, and 27.5% of women in the same age group were still residing with their parents, showing an increase of 9.9 points and 11.6 points compared to two decades ago.

The biggest shift over the past twenty years was seen in the group of women aged 18 to 21, with 79.5 percent of them still living with their parents, an increase of 17.6 percentage points.

The Benefits of Staying Home

In 2021, 54.3% of young men aged 18 to 29 were residing with their parents, an increase of 7.7% from 2001. Similarly, 46.7% of young women were also living with their parents, marking an increase of 10.8% from 2001.

According to HILDA, it is uncommon for young adults who have moved out of their parents’ home to return, although a small percentage of men and women in that age group did so.

The Future of Young Australians

According to the report, a high number of individuals between the ages of 18 and 21, 8.4 per cent of men and 8.1 per cent of women, returned to live with their parents from 2018 to 2020.

Young adults residing in the regions of New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Victoria — where  s and

According to HILDA, people living in these areas have experienced a significant increase in staying at home and were less inclined to leave compared to residents in other regions of the country.

Also Read: Australia’s housing shortage: A crisis in the making?

The Impact on Parents

The report stated that there was a noticeable decrease in the percentage of young males moving out of their parents’ home in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. The drop was significant, with rates going from 23.8 percent between 2001 and 2003 to 13.5 percent between 2018 and 2020.

This shift can be explained by reasons like a greater variety of educational opportunities, increasing housing costs, and the influence of the COVID-19 outbreak.